Piper
|alias = Lady Pipette The Green Widow |job = Baroness Deputy magistrate Auril City Council member Crusader Fruit farmer (formerly) |nature = Quiet |trait = Thoroughly cunning |alignment = True Neutral |ability = Overgrow |moves = |relatives = Pieter (first husband) Percy (son) Piedmont (fourth husband) |residence = Auril City |affiliation = Crusade City of Auril }} The serpent colloquially known as Piper, more formally yclept Lady Piedmont or Lady Pipette, is a prominent figure in the Crusade and a soft-spoken aristocrat of Auril City. She is a four-time widow, two of which times were by her own hand, and a baroness through her marriage to the late Empoleon Baron Piedmont. Having secured a comfortable place in high society, Piper monitors the back-doors of the city for the Crusade's intelligence. She holds the title of deputy magistrate to Urien, but she is occasionally caught engaging in furtive, extrajudicial, and usually lethal crime-fighting escapades. Piper is often seen toting a parasol, even in the dead of night. History Piper grew up in a rural grassland community under happy circumstances. A child of two orchardists, she was taught at a young age about the management and cultivation of fruits and nuts. As a Snivy, Piper was particularly handy in times of harvest because of her long vines. She lived in this manner with her parents and brothers through her evolution to Servine, around which time she began to look out for a prospective lover. A Grotle named Pieter caught Piper's eye, and she his. The two farmers found love at first sight, and their days together were some of the happiest of their lives. They staked their own farmstead together and embarked on the grand quest to start a family. Their first harvest was bountiful, and they were soon joined by a son named Percy. Piper grew to love her son, as mothers do, and doted on him tirelessly. However, Pieter and Piper would not live happily ever after. Pieter fell ill one day, prompting his Servine wife to reach out to the nearest town for aid. Piper met with a physician and successfully procured a medication for the ailing Grotle. To her horror, she found her home ransacked and burned when she returned. Her family lay blackened among the ashes. A grief-stricken Piper wept at their side until she could weep no more, at which time she finally laid them to rest on the family plot with little ceremony. Yet young Piper's grief turned into single-minded vengeance soon afterward. She learned from the sheriff that a Talonflame outlaw was believed to frequent the area—she had seen no unusual footprints at her ruined home, so this avian seemed a likely culprit. Rather than moving back in with her parents, the widowed Piper borrowed a sum from Pieter's remaining family and set out after this criminal. She managed to ingratiate herself with his lackeys through clever gifts and a dark sense of humor. She even flirted with the rogues until one of them took her for a wife—even this was agreeable to her if it meant being a step closer to avenging Pieter and Percy. Maneuvering deeper and deeper into their fold, Piper was a full-fledged member of the team by the time she was finally introduced to her quarry. That night, she treated the gang to a wild night of drink and debauchery with coin stolen from their own pockets. When the outlaw and his drunken fellows ultimately fell into a stupor, Piper made her move and strangled them one by one. She evolved into Serperior that same night. Although she left numerous bodies in her wake, Piper eluded retaliation with the benefit of her new appearance and the satisfaction of revenge. Personality Among the Crusade, Piper is known for her cunning intellect and gallows humor. Category:Female characters Category:Neutral characters Category:Grass-types Category:Crusaders